Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-08-19

| by Hjulmar Ill. N. BOyeEpn III the COnRrcgu-
tionalistl
Sir Charles Dixie has, in n recent series
of articles in the Nineteenth Century,
drawn dark picture of the political con
ditiou of Europe, and has pointed to the
United States as the hope of the world.
The great nations of Europe, he says, are
spending their revenues in enormous ar
maments, each being determined to outdo
the other and for the privilege of bully
ing each other are curtailing their free
dom and retarding their industrial and
intellectual development 1t is, OF course,
possible that distance has lent enchant-
ment to Sir Charless transatlantic view.
He is apparently not aware that our pen
sion list, a legacy from our late civil war,
exceeds in amount the cost of the mill
tary establishment of so considerable a
power as Austria Hungary, and is only
$4,000 1000 less than that of Germany.
| Nor has he heard that dependent pen
sion bill was passed by the last Congress
which, if it had not been vetoed by the
president, would have made an end of our
boast that ours is an industrial civiliza-
ton, and that we are unuppressed by the
! burdens which the great standing armies
of Europe necessitate We should, in
! fact, be supporting an army OF non-com-
! batants at a cost greater than was ever
| borne by any nation in times OF peace.
The Significance of this alarming waste
! fulness in its economic and moral aspects,
could, however, scarcely be appreciated at
| Il distance. 1t is, moreover, the unac-
Eknowledged programme of liberalism III
all lands where it exists to take rose
colored view of American conditions. Inc
! United States presents an object lesson TO
the European liberal, eXemplifylng the
working of the reform which he is advo-
eating. lie has his eyes constantly. dl-
rected across the Atlantic, and sees there
very much what he wants to see. 1t may
he the extension of the suffrage winch he
has at heart. In such case he is apt to
fluid that American prosperity is due to
universal suffrage. In the Norwegian
Suorthing during a recent debate, lasting
for weeks, on the introduction of trial by
Jury, both the government ana the Oppo-
siton pointed to American experience,
and drew exactly opposite lessons from
1t.
In the French Corps LegiSldttf similar
" contradictory deductions are constantly
being drawn from American history. l
once heard the late Jules Favre talk in
the chamber as If our country were the
veritable Atlantis, Garden of Eden, I'M
veXed by problems introduced by the ser
by depicting our social conditions as being
horrible beyond compare. He too had
read De Tocqueville and perhaps Ban
croft, and had derived the impression that
our republican experiment was chleny
valuable as a warning example TO all
States which might be tempted away from
the safe paths of mOnarchical tradition
In the German Reichstag, compliment.
airy references to the United States are,
believe, rarer than in any other Legislative
assembly in Europe, chiefly because rev
have the courage TO run counter 10 DIS
marck's prejudiceS. have heard the
Jewish representative, Sonnemann, editor
of Frankfort journal, hint in a speech
that things were not so bad here as Ger
man official circles affected to believe, and
the socialist members also occasionally
point with pride" to our freedom from
the ills that Cypress king-ridden Europe.
They boast of our prosperity as if it were
only necessary to adopt their measures, i'll
order to make Germany equally blessed.
But they deal chiefly in generaitles, dis
tort their facts. if by chance they get hold
of any, and subject them to all sorts of
wild interpretations. The late Friedrich
kapp had, however, more influence than
any one else in restraining the German
admiration for the United States, which
existed rs a sort of vague sentiment with
the liberals between 1913 and 1870. He
had spent many years in important posi.
tions in our republic, and had returned
home dlsillusionized and disgruntled.
A favorable disposition toward Amerl-
can democracy being thus, as rule, Char
acteristic of liberalism, it is, OF course,
but natural that conservatism should
cherish the opposite sentiment. Ana there
are several circumstances which tend TO
make the conservative case strong one.
In the first place American competition IN
agricultural products drives the noble
man and the country gentleman from
their inherited acres, and makes it impos-
sible to support the dignity of exalted
station on the rents of land titled by ten
ants. This DISCRIMINATION of the old
feudal system naturally arouses hostility :;
for no feeling is bitterer than that which
springs from an empty pocket
The revolutionary tendencies OF Amerl-
can pork and wheat have long since been
remarked by European statesmen, ana
have prompted various measures OF de-
Tense and retaliation. Germany has found
our pork unwhOlesome, and ii is notorl
Gus fact that it disagrees with all the
junkcrS and country noblemen. The Irish
landlords would have made the same dis
coveIy, if there were any hope of Undue
ing England to abandon her free trade
policy. Statesmen like Gladstone, who
recognize the fact that feudalism is doom
ed, welcome the cooperation of industrial
forces which hasten the day of the liberia
ton of mankind from the old bondage :;
and even a premier of the Salisbury type
knows that it is hopeless thing to fight
against fact. No man, however clever,
can emancipate himself from the multi
plication table. A protective barrier in
the way of duty on American wheat
would revive the old corn law agitation,
and make the old privileges and class dis
tinctions more insecure than ever. The
pretense that idleness is an essential to
nobility cannot be much longer main tain
ed. The farmer on the western praires
forces the British peer to pull off his
gloves and go to work. 1t is first the
younger sons who are reduced to this nee
essity, but within half a century the eld-
est will also have been compelled by the
same agency to conquer his prejudice.
His leisure is already now largely fiction.
If he desires to keep up the rate of en-
penditure which his dignity demands, he
is obliged to invest his money in some
thing that pays better than land. He be-
gins to watch the stock market ; he inter
ests himself in various manufacturing en-,
terprises, in the hope of finding safe and
!, profitable investments and ii he means
to protect himself against loss, he is
Obliged to keen an eye on the manage